The 9 Best DJ Mixes of November 2017

Listeners who aren’t in the habit of seeking out DJ mixes may have caught Björk’s rarer-than-hen’s-teeth set for Mixmag anyway. Perhaps they even came to the realization that there’s far more to the form than just stringing beats together. This month’s roundup of outstanding mixes highlights a number of sets that, like Björk’s, are driven by an unusually narrative sensibility, including Charlotte Bendiks’ stealthy, slo-mo techno session and Minor Science’s wide-ranging exploration of drum ‘n’ bass tempo. Bok Bok’s megamix of Kelela edits puts a different kind of spin on the storytelling theme. And a few others, like those from DEBONAIR and Anastasia Kristensen, just bang—and righteously.

Björk – The Cover Mix

It’s not every day that Björk makes a mixtape, and her Cover Mix for Mixmag feels appropriately momentous. It’s a fascinating glimpse at the contrasting influences—classical minimalism and bass music, avant-pop and folk—that feed into both her DJ sets and her own songwriting. Loosely themed around “breath and air,” and overlaid with birdsong samples and excerpts from the 1977 album Sacred Flute Music From New Guinea (a nod to the flute and birdsong woven through Utopia), the mix traces a freeform, zig-zagging path across sounds both ethereal and viscous, soothing and dissonant. A pensive opening drawn from labels like Unseen Worlds, New Amsterdam, and Cantaloupe Music stands to give the contemporary-composition industry a late-year boost to its bottom line, while a concussive stretch featuring Lanark Artefax and Peder Mannerfelt shines a light on two of the most interesting artists in leftfield club music right now. And thanks to her inspired concluding segue, you might never hear Kelela’s “Take Me Apart” in quite the same way again.

Kelela x Bok Bok – Dub Me Apart

Bok Bok’s latest set is a double flashback to two venerable dance-music traditions. Seamlessly joining edits of tracks drawn from Kelela’s Take Me Apart, the 25-minute set is, on the one hand, a kind of megamix, a medley in mixtape form. Heavily steeped in the bumping, flexing vibes of classic 2-step, it’s also a reminder of the wonders of the UK garage remix, that late-’90s meeting of underground club and mainstream pop. UKG veteran Steve Gurley supplies the beat that kicks things off with such giddy, bubbly energy. Rhythms from Terror Danjah, Nguzunguzu’s NA, and Leonce, among others, take the set into darker territory that contrasts nicely with the silvery tenor of Kelela’s voice. Whoever’s responsible for the shuddering, staccato wallop of the finale, it’s a corker.

Charlotte Bendiks – Dekmantel Podcast 148

Charlotte Bendiks’ set for Dekmantel exerts a powerful pull, but it’s a subtle one: It comes on like floodwaters, or poison—slowly and inexorably. The Norwegian electronic musician is an affiliate of Matias Aguayo’s Cómeme label, and you can hear as much from her selections, which favor the slow-motion grind of her Scandinavian peers and the eerie atmospheres and Latin accents of her label-mates. Lavishing attention on skulking machine beats and minor-key synths, she takes half an hour to nudge the tempo above the 110-BPM mark, and even after that, she never strays far from EBM’s ominous pace. Her selections are inspired, touching upon Middle Eastern refrains, DJ Mujava–style synth squeal, unfettered drum solos, bursts of electronic meltdown, and even stranger sounds, like Center of the Universe’s “Acid Rebetiko,” which trots out Balkan melodies in 9/4 time. Best of all, her mixing is both deft and audacious. Quite simply, it’s a set you don’t want to end.

Minor Science – Common Narrative #4

Minor Science (former Pitchfork contributor Angus Finlayson) has had a good year. His recent tracks for the Whities label have been ubiquitous across the underground, their voluminous bass and lush atmospheres embraced on dancefloors and in more listening-oriented contexts alike. His recent EP is slower than bass music typically runs, but on this blinding set for Cashmere Radio, he accelerates to nearly 170 BPM. Drum ‘n’ bass forms the set’s backbone, but despite tech-step-referencing cuts like Yally’s ominous “Dread Risk,” it’s not all d’n’b proper: Tolouse Low Trax’s springy “Vineland” draws out a mechanized sense of tension, while Still’s “Bubbling Ambessa” offers a dystopian take on dancehall reggae. Just like Minor Science’s own productions, the whole set’s mixed with velvety smoothness, creating something enveloping out of spiky textures and eerie moods. (Note: Minor Science’s set begins around 45 minutes in, and is preceded by a set by Natureboy Gold.)

Sugai Ken – Métron Mixtape 050

Sugai Ken’s recent album for RVNG Intl., UkabazUmorezU, is a hyperreal voyage through plasteline soundscapes and rustling field recordings, punctuated by synthetic chimes and birdcalls, but his mix for the Métron Mixtape series ventures into terrain that’s less abstracted and, dare I say it, more musical. Drawn entirely from the catalog of Amsterdam’s Lullabies for Insomniacs label, which released Ken’s 2016 album On the Quakefish, the 45-minute set touches on Georgia’s dubby psychedelia, Laszlo Hortobagyi’s cosmic synth-and-tabla jamming, and Magic Carpathians’ “Thalassa,” essentially a new-age take on Meredith Monk. The best of the bunch might be Tarotplane’s “A Polaroid Sunset,” a gorgeous bit of guitar drone that recalls post-rock’s late-’90s prime.

DJ Xanax B2B DJ Python – Know Wave

The billing on this theoretical double-header is a gag: DJ Xanax and DJ Python are the same person. If he’d wanted, Brian Piñeyro could have asked DJ Wey and Luis to join in, and they could have made it a four-for-the-price-of-one kinda deal. While there’s no indication that Piñeyro’s toggling between identities behind the decks, his selections definitely speak to a musical imagination that isn’t interested in sticking to any one lane for long. An early passage of fuzzy leftfield house from the Laton/Acido camps (Alois Huber, Dresvn, SVN & Porn Sword Tobacco) gives way to a handful of Masters at Work classics, sprinkled with iconic tracks like Newworldaquarium’s timeless “Trespassers” and Stardust’s mega-hit “Music Sounds Better With You.” The mix’s second half is all breakbeat hardcore and vintage jungle—a high-speed hoot. The only complaint: Aside from a tantalizing bit in the intro, there’s not nearly enough of Python’s slinky brand of “deep reggaeton.”

Anastasia Kristensen – RA.598

Copenhagen’s Anastasia Kristensen turned up in this column back in May with a wide-ranging set for Mixmag, and now she’s back with a hard-charging hour for Resident Advisor’s weekly series. The deep bell tones of her own “Ascetic” start the set out on a meditative note; Aphex Twin’s early Polygon Window track “Quixote” extends the heads-down vibe, and Special Request’s “Adel Crag Microdot” ratchets up the tension. From there on in, it’s all pummel and churn, switching back and forth between brain-rattling ’90s techno and recent cuts with a similar intensity. Taut rhythms, metallic textures, and a gravelly low end make for a thrilling interplay of force and texture.

Franklin de Costa – Crack Mix 174

This exquisite, 80-minute set from Germany’s Franklin de Costa never goes quite where you expect it to. A dreamy ambient intro from Regelbau’s C.K. and S.P.O.R.T.S. gives way to a sparkling synth fantasia by Caterina Barbieri. Ekoplekz’s ambient dub seamlessly swells into the kind of linear but abstracted grooves favored by Ploy, Spatial, and other UK artists that tend to play at de Costa’s Mothers Finest parties at Berlin’s Griessmühle. Things eventually turn pretty heavy, but even at its most cavernously technoid, it’s still shot through with a lightness of spirit. It’s rare that techno this tough sounds quite so colorful.